In message <[email protected]>, dated Wed, 11 Jan 2006, Chris Maxwell <[email protected]> writes
>1. Classifying their product (i.e. trying to find the right standard) Answers to that are freely available here. The following responses mostly apply to IEC standards. >2. Having to buy the whole standard, when they may just need to answer >a specific question. Depend on the question: 1. If it's about the scope or the first few pages, a 'preview is available free on the IEC web site. 2. If it's a 'closed' question, like 'Is the limit for conducted emissions still X dB at Y MHz?', it can probably be answered safely (but not necessarily; the answer could be 'Yes', but you measure it in a very different way.' 3. If it's an 'open' question, like 'What are the differences between edition 1 and edition 2?', that usually can't be answered safely and you need to buy the new edition. >3. Having to buy the whole standard and then having to bear the >responsibility of making sure that their standards "library" stays up >to date. There are subscription services that will send you all amendments and new editions of your company's specific list of standards. Not cheap. >4. The clarity of standards. I paid $800 for a copy of IEC 1010-1 >with amendments a few years ago. The standard came to me as the >original document with amendments shipped separately, I had to spend >about eight hours cutting and pasting the amendments in. The next time >we pay $800 for a standard, it had better come complete. IEC now tries to address this by publishing 'consolidated editions', and a new edition every time a third amendment is approved. (This doesn't apply to every standard; one has about 20 current amendments but it's a special case.) But USD800 looks pretty steep anyway; always shop around. Some (not all, now) IEC standards are bilingual English/French, so cost more than a single-language edition. But some National Committees and publication agents publish a transposed version in English at around the same price as the IEC EN/FR version! > >I think that the price of standards would be less of an issue if people >got more help determining what standard applies See above. >and if people had a way to access standards on a pay-as-you go basis. That IS a possible future development, but initially it's likely to be costly. -- OOO - Own Opinions Only. Try www.jmwa.demon.co.uk and www.isce.org.uk 2006 is YMMVI- Your mileage may vary immoderately. John Woodgate - This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to [email protected] Instructions: http://listserv.ieee.org/request/user-guide.html List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas [email protected] Mike Cantwell [email protected] For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: [email protected] David Heald: [email protected] All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc
